ABOVE: MICROBIAL CONNECTIONS: Nanotubes can be seen extending from E. coli in this scanning electron micrograph of a coculture of E. coli and Acinetobacter baylyi.
CHRISTIAN KOST, OSNABRÜCK UNIVERSITY
In 2011, the microbiology community learned of a brand-new feature of bacteria: nanotubes. Scientists later showed that these membranous, hollow connections between bacteria allow the transfer of materials such as amino acids and toxins that inhibit growth. These tubes were unlike anything the researchers had seen before: in contrast to the conjugative pili that transfer genetic material during bacterial “sex,” the nanotubes were made of lipids, not proteins. They were also more promiscuous than pili, often linking microbes of different species, and even connecting bacteria with mammalian cells. It was starting to look like bacterial nanotubes were long-overlooked features of microbiology.
Jiří Pospíšil, a graduate student at the Czech Academy of Sciences, was enamored with these novel bacterial structures—so much so that ...
